Description

Yes, the perfect trail bike needs to descend the roughest of trails with confidence, yet it still needs to climb with gusto. And to address those seemingly conflicting goals, Fox Racing Shox built the 32 Talas 26 140 FIT CTD Fork. Lowering your fork to four inches of travel keeps the handling responsive for climbing, and when you get to the top, raise it back up, and enjoy 5.5-inches of plush travel the whole way down.

Like recent generations of Fox's Factory series forks, the Talas 140 controls its stroke with the venerable FIT damper. As you may have guessed, 'FIT' is an acronym, and it stands for Fox Isolated Technology. And, unlike a traditional open bath system, FIT means that the damper fluid is sealed in an air-tight bladder. This prevents contamination, which improves the consistency of the damper on long descents.

Long-time Fox riders will immediately notice Fox's Climb, Trail, Descend damper adjustments. And there's no need to worry, you're still getting the same adjustments to high- and low-speed compression, only it's now packaged in a more user-friendly format. Climb mode provides the most damping for a near locked-out feel. Meanwhile, it still provides a bit of cushion for any unexpected hard hits. Click the damper into the Trail mode, and you'll find that there's ample low-speed compression in order to keep the fork riding high in the travel through berms, jumps, and rocks. Better yet, it still provides plenty of compliance in order to smooth out the ride. Trail mode has three sub-settings that allow you to tune exactly how much feedback that you need from your suspension. And, as you may have guessed, Descend mode provides the lightest compression damping for a plush ride.

Talas stands for Travel Adjust Linear Air Spring. And true to the name, a quick flip of the spring side fork cap adjusts the travel from 140mm to 110mm, and back again. Accordingly, the 120mm setting lowers the axle to crown height by 30mm. This effectively lowers your handlebars and bottom bracket, as well as steepening the head angle in order to improve climbing control. The reasoning behind this design is relatively elementary. You see, tall forks and slack head tube angles yield more control for descending, but make your bike unwieldy when climbing. This makes the Talas' travel reduction especially important on the current generation of trail bikes. Additionally, Fox has updated the spring rate to provide more resistance to bottoming out than previous Talas springs. So, this version of the Talas is ideal for aggressive riders.

The 32 Talas 140 features Kashima coated stanchions. Kashima coating is harder than standard stanchion coatings, which equates to a longer wear life, as well as smoother suspension action. The 32 chassis is something of a classic in the Fox lineup, and it's easy to see why. At just around four pounds, this fork is downright svelte. Better yet, it's strong enough to ride rough trails day- in and day-out. This is thanks in part to the massive tapered steerer tube, which fights flex under hard braking. And speaking of stiffness, Fox uses Shimano's 15mm QR axle assembly, which provides both added stiffness and increased security over a traditional 9mm QR skewer.

The Fox Racing Shox 32 Talas 26 140 CTD FIT Fork is available in a 26-inch wheel compatibility, and with a 1.5-inch tapered steerer tube and a 15mm QR compatibility. Additionally, it's available in the color Black.